Nowadays, it is known to mount in each wheel of a motor vehicle an electronic measuring module comprising one or more sensors in order to monitor parameters of the wheel and to detect an anomaly. Those sensors can for example be a tire inflation gas pressure sensor and/or a wheel acceleration sensor.
FIG. 1 shows a motor vehicle 1A including an electronic control unit 5A and a plurality of wheels 10A (six wheels in this example) in each of which an electronic measuring module 100A is mounted.
Each module 100A sends its measurements to the electronic control unit 5A which processes them to detect an anomaly and inform the driver of it. To this end, each electronic measuring module 100A sends the electronic control unit 5A over a radio link L1 signals in which are coded messages including the measurements and an identifier of the module 100A.
On starting the vehicle, the electronic unit 5A does not know the exact location of each module 100A but it is necessary for the electronic control unit 5A to be able to locate each module 100A of the vehicle 1A (left front wheel, right front wheel, etc.) in order to display on the dashboard information relating to a fault in one of the wheels such as, for example, a low tire pressure alarm, a slow leak from the tire, an anomaly of the electronic measuring module 10A of the wheel, etc.
In existing solutions, the electronic control unit 5A knows only the identifier of each module 100A that it receives in the measurement messages and does not know the location of each wheel.
A known solution for determining the location of the modules 100A consists in recognizing the signature of the radio-frequency power of each module 100A. A solution of this kind necessitates the electronic control unit 5A learning beforehand the signatures of the various electronic measuring modules 100A, which can prove significantly complex, time-consuming and costly. Moreover, this phase of configuring the electronic control unit 5A must be carried out for all the wheel positions for each vehicle type and variant, which represents a major disadvantage.
If the modules 100A include an accelerometer or a shock sensor, another known solution consists in programming the electronic control unit 5A so that it requests each module 100A to send a message when it is in a predetermined position relative to the wheel. A solution of this kind is complex and costly, however, because it requires the use of an accelerometer or a shock sensor. Moreover, a solution of this kind is not able to discriminate the positions of twinned wheels and proves equally ineffective for vehicles equipped with an integral transmission system, which again represents disadvantages.